F.I.C.
A new story I wrote, with quite a dark edge compared to my other work.
It might be allegorical or metaphorical or whatever, I didn't really keep track while I was writing through it. Interesting how the only female character in it is Mother...I'm sure Freud would have a field day on that :P
The really interesting thing is that this whole story came from a dream. Most of my best story ideas come from dreams, but this one came with the whole story laid out before me, details and all!
- Allison <3
F.I.C.
"What simulation would you like tonight, boys?" Mother says as she tucks me in. She's not my mother, we just call her that. I peep from under my blankets. I like these blankets; I got them before I came here. They remind me of something, but I don't remember what it is.
"Fishes!" shouts Mo. That's the boy who lives in my room with me and two other boys. Mother calls him Mohammed, but the boys all call him Mo. He looks different, but nobody notices.
Mother puts the fishes on and every wall looks like the bottom of the sea. It was nice before, but I don't really like it any more. We have the fishes a lot, or sometimes the spaceship one.
"Mother," says Mo sleepily. "How do you make us go to so many places so quickly?"
"It's magic, Mohammed. The gentlemen who are in charge of your home can make anything appear right before our very eyes, thanks to these simulations!"
Mo's eyes fill with wonder as he stares out at the fish. "It's amazing that they can bring us to the same spot every night to see these same fishes!" He jolts up and points at an orange fish. "Look! That one's called Ahmed, I remember him!"
I'm not really friends with the other two boys. One of them is quiet and shy and the other looks bored all the time. I'm usually bored all the time here too, but he even looks bored when he's having fun. The one who looks bored suddenly groaned. "Mother, why do we always have to watch these fake things? Why can't we see what's really outside?"
Mo gives a confused look to the fish. They look pretty real to me. Mother looks sad and sighs. "Come with me, Benjamin."
The lights went out and the boy who always looks bored left with Mother. There's only me and two other boys living in my room now.
"Did he mean that?" Mo cried out. "About the simulations being fake?"
The quiet boy spoke up. "Ye...he...I don't know."
"What did he mean 'what's really outside'?"
"Somewhere there's a door. It goes to a place like in our simulations. I don't remember it. Mother said I should forget about it..."
The quiet boy went quiet again. I remember when Mother taught me how to forget. It was right after I got here. I saw her face before I saw anything else and everytime I go to sleep I can see her round, wrinkly face. She said "Welcome to the Facility for Inquisitive Children. I don't remember anything before that, except I could look up and see a bright light and a lot of blue. I stared up at the dull, grey ceiling and fell asleep.
*
I have a class the next day. Breakfast always straight to our rooms, with toast and orange juice and this grey gloop that tastes really nice. I always feel really good after a bowl of the grey gloop, but today I was still busy thinking about the simulations. There's something funny about them.
Mother came with her friends and they took us by the hand. We aren't allowed to walk around without Mother's friends with us. He took me down a big metal corridor to the room where my class was. They're teaching me words today, because I don't talk so good. The man teaching me says he's the magician who makes the simulations work, but I don't know his name.
"Good morning!" he says. "Here to learn your vocabulary, aren't we? I'm afraid I'm rather busy this morning testing out some new simulations, but I can go over a few words with you at the same time, if you don't mind?"
I shake my head and he pulls out a book. It has big, strange pictures labelled with words. I thought I was good with words, but this book just confuses me. There's a picture of the sun behind some clouds and I try to read the words in my head.
When a neuff like this occurs and the parabolax of the nebulostrum is hypercolluded by gastromorphs...
Suddenly there's a light. I didn't see what the simulation was before, but it's changed to a mountain and an island that I don't recognise. We're floating very high up above it and I'm worried that we're going to fall down into the sea below. I hold on to my chair and try not to let the magician see that I'm scared. I don't like heights.
"Isn't it pretty?" says the magician. "Mount Fujiyama, they call it. I'm not sure about the viewpoint, but we can change that later..."
He keeps talking and I just concentrate on trying to read the book.
...the nebulostrum is said to be undergoing a neuff called a deathribution.
"Why don't you read some of that book to me?"
I notice something else. Things have appeared in the sky. Clouds and an aeroplane. I can see boats have appeared in the water and cars on roads. Nothing is moving. It's all stood still. I can see birds in the middle of flapping and clouds being blown about by the aeroplane, but none of it is moving. It's all frozen, like it's not real...like it's fake.
"Here, let me help you read that."
When a neuff like this occurs and the parabolax of the nebulostrum is hypercolluded by gastromorphs...
I suddenly feel very sick. None of it is real.
...the nebulostrum is said to be undergoing a neuff called a deathribution.
The boy who always looks bored and the quiet boy, they're both right.
...deathribution.
Even the fishes aren't real...
...death...
I run. I don't know where I'm going, but I start running. The magician's shouting after me, but I'm already around a corner. I end up in a large room with nothing but tables. Other boys are sat at the tables writing on paper in silence. A man is watching them and starts to come after me. I find an exit at the other end of the room and run for it. It's not just the man coming for me, but the tension in the room that I don't like.
I'm in another corridor with signs all over. There's one big one hanging over a window that says WE DO NOT SPEAK OF OUTSIDE. Through the window I can see the boy who always looks bored. He looks very bored right now, he's just hanging there from a big piece of wood in a cross shape. He isn't moving...
I keep running as more men come up behind me. I bump into Mo and the quiet boy being led by Mother's friends. They see how scared I am and Mo is the first to figure it out.
"It...it really isn't real, is it?"
The quiet boy knows what to do and without speaking, he's leading us somewhere. I hope it's somewhere real. We get to a place where all the corridors come together and there's a big door with a sign: OUTSIDE. We just stare. Anything could be behind it, but at least it's real...
That's when Mother arrives. She sees us looking at the door. Children aren't supposed to be around here. I worry she's going to make us go stand with the bored boy, but she doesn't. She just sighs and looks sad. She sees the tears in my eyes and tears appear in hers. She opens the door.
Without thinking, I go running down the stairs and suddenly I'm surrounding by things I've never seen or smelt or felt before. There's grass all over and trees and when I look up I can see a bright light and lots of blue again. I turn around, but Mo and the quiet boy have gone. Mother closes the door.
Nervously, I take my first step.
by AllisonTowers